Meet woman who founded Rs 8000 crore company with husband after he quit his job, not from IIT, IIM

Written By DNA Web Team | Updated: Aug 13, 2023, 05:40 PM IST

Upasana Taku is the COO and board chair of MobiKwik, a business she and her husband founded. Her engineering degree was obtained from Punjab Technical University. Later, she graduated from Stanford University with a master's degree in management science and engineering.

With businesswomen like Falguni Nayari, Vineeta Singh, Isha Ambani, Jayanti Chaudhary, and others, the business world is becoming more progressive, and this is demonstrating the growth of the sector. No industry has been spared the wisdom and brilliance of women, from fashion to tech.

Upasana Taku is a name that consistently captures the interest of numerous aspiring businesspeople in India she is first female business owner currently dominating the fintech sector.

Who is Upasana Taku?

Upasana Taku is the CEO and board chair of MobiKwik, a business she and her husband founded. Her engineering degree was obtained from Punjab Technical University. Later, she graduated from Stanford University with a master's degree in management science and engineering. 

She has worked in related fields for more than 17 years. She worked as a product manager for American payments firm PayPal before founding her own business. She also had a job at HSBC. She formerly resided in the US but moved back to India in 2008 to establish her business.

She expressed her desire to address a significant issue in India, a sizable nation with a wealth of unrealized potential and problems, in an earlier interview with Forbes. Although she had also investigated other markets, India was a great location for that. Her family opposed her plans to return to India because they believed it would be a very risky move. 

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Her parents, father, a physics professor at the University of Asmara in Eritrea, and mother, a musician, lived in Africa at the time. They came back in 2009. She left PayPal, where she was excelling to pursue her entrepreneurial dream.

She enjoyed every luxury, including a large home, a car, and other things. She returned and began working for the rural microfinance NGO Drishtee in rural Bihar and Uttar Pradesh after taking the risk.

Founded company with husband after he quit his job

She first met her husband, Bipin Preet Singh, in 2008 while watching a play; they were wed in 2011. In 2008, Singh, a co-founder of MobiKwik, developed the concept for the platform. He was unhappy, but he was unable to leave his job because he needed to provide for his family. He was empowered by Upasana to resign from his position and formally launch the startup. He started the business in 2009.

MobiKwik's co-founder Upasana Taku claimed that the company started making a profit in the third quarter of the fiscal year 2022–2023. The company's current year goals include doubling revenue and achieving full-year profitability.

The platform generated Rs 560 crore in revenue during the most recent fiscal year. The 'Buy Now Pay Later' programme, according to her, helped the business increase the number of credit card users. The business's most recent round of funding came in December 2021, valued at 700 million dollars (roughly Rs. 5,723 crore). 

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